The Story of Whomps
"The Story of Whomps" is the seventeenth episode of the second season of Recess, which was first broadcast on November 21st, 1998. Plot 'Summary' T.J.'s word "Whomps" gets him in a lot of trouble. 'Main Story' The episode begins with Lawson and the Recess Gang going to play baseball. T.J. says the word "Whomps", prompting Lawson to almost attack him. The gang then explains that the word "Whomps" was invented in second grade so that T.J. cannot get in trouble for swearing. The recess is over, and T.J. says "Whomps" again, unfortunately, Finster catches him, and sends him to Principal Prickly's office, where he makes it very clear that "Whomps" is a bad word for some reason and that he is going to notify the faculty. T.J. is angry at this, and he somehow gets all the other kids to say it. The kids continue to be sent as if it was daily routine to the Principal's Office, causing Prickly to call the Board Of Education, who send over Mr. White, a man who is strict and adheres to the rules almost to the point of insanity. He tricks T.J. into giving a speech where he says the word "Whomps" again, and T.J. is arrested and brought to court. When Superintendent Skinner hears the word, however, he does not find it very bad, and that the fact that it was made up by a kid to replace bad words does not mean it's bad. T.J. is found not guilty, and Prickly then ends the episode on a comical and ironic note by saying, "This Whomps!" Goofs *'Animation error: '''When everyone was seen in Principal Prickly's office, the white streak on Butch's hair is missing. Trivia *Lawson makes his first appearance in this episode. *The fact that T.J. is sent to court for saying Whomps serves as a precursor to the episode "The Biggest Trouble Ever" when the gang is treated like criminals after they accidentally break a statue of Third Street's founder. *Mr. White appears again in ''Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade where he has apparently been promoted from cleaner to a major member after the Whomps incident. He has, if possible, adhered to the rules even more, as he was the only one to stay on to the new school policies after T.J.'s successful protest. *T.J. has a different appearance in the second grade (as seen in the episode's flashback sequence) than he does in the flashback sequence in "Teacher's Lounge", and this version of his second grade appearance would stay constant for the rest of the series. The difference is that his look in this episode onwards has him a bit shorter and skinnier, as well as wearing his usual outfit without the jacket, while his original second grade look had him shorter, still chubby, and wearing a completely different outfit (though still wearing his hat). *This episode was included as a bonus on the DVD of Recess: All Growed Down. *It's shown in this episode that Butch is in the fifth grade, as he's shown to be in the same class as Lawson and his crew. *This is the second episode in which Finster schemes against T.J, the first being "The Box" and the next being "Principal for a Day". Category:Season 2 Category:Episodes